Psychiatric Polarities: Methodology and Practice - Softcover

Slavney, Phillip R. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1421419769 ISBN 13: 9781421419763

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016

Synopsis

In this companion volume to their widely acclaimed Perspectives of Psychiatry, Phillip R. Slavney, M.D., and Paul R. McHugh, M.D., argue that the discontinuity of brain and mind is the source of much of psychiatry’s discord, for it leads psychiatrists to think about their discipline in terms of polar opposites: conscious or unconscious; explanation or understanding; paternalism or autonomy. Psychiatric Polarities brings together the history of ideas and such clinical issues as suicide and bipolar disorder to identify, describe, and debate these and other polar oppositions that arise from psychiatry’s inherent ambiguity.

There is no single conceptual perspective that is sufficient for all of psychiatry’s concerns, Slavney and McHugh observe, yet it is both possible and necessary to transcend the denominational conflicts that plague the field. In Psychiatric Polarities, their examination of these conflicts demonstrates how a methodological approach can help to resolve disagreements rooted in partisan commitments.

About this title

Book Description:

A lively exploration of mind and brain, conscious and unconscious, patient and client.

About the Author:

Phillip R. Slavney, M.D., is the Eugene Meyer III Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Paul R. McHugh, M.D., is a University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry and a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1421419769
• ISBN 13: 9781421419763
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144